Friday Apple Rumors: Gold iPhone 5s Sells Out Fast

by Christopher Freeburn | September 20, 2013 12:56 pm

[1]Here are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Demand: Within 10 minutes of the official launch of Apple‘s (AAPL[3]) new iPhone 5s this morning, the entire launch supply of the gold colored model was depleted[4], CNET notes. All models of the gold iPhone 5s — which comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions — quickly slipped to a 7 to 10 days shipping wait on the company’s online store. Within hours, the shipping time for the gold iPhone 5s had jumped to sometime in October in a number of countries, including the U.S., France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The white and gray models also sold out, though not quite as quickly. Shipping wait times in the U.S. for those models by Friday afternoon remained at 7 to 10 days. In response to strong demand, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has raised orders for gold iPhones from its Asian supply chain partners[5] by about one third. The iPhone 5s was unveiled at a special media event last week alongside the new iPhone 5c, which features colorful plastic rear casing. Apple reportedly had very limited supplies of the new iPhones available to meet launch-time demand. The company did not accept pre-orders for the iPhone 5s outside China, though it did allow iPhone 5c pre-orders.

Patch: Those who could get a new iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c on Friday will be greeted by a prompt to install a software update[6] when they power up their devices, AppleInsider notes. Apple has released a software patch designed to resolve a glitch with the iPhone 5s’ fingerprint sensor when used to confirm iTunes purchases. The patch, the first update for the new iOS 7 operating system, which was made available for public download on Wednesday, is exclusively for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Older iPhones do not require the patch.

Personal Appearance: Apple CEO Tim Cook showed up at the Palo Alto Apple Store[7] this morning to mingle with customers queuing outside, CBS News notes. Cook appeared around 7:30 a.m. and took the time to meet with those waiting to buy the company’s new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. He told reporters that he was there to see Apple customers and store employees and declined to take questions from the media.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[8] stories.